Our guest blogger is Crosby Burns, Research Associate for LGBT Progress.

While President Obama has decided to not issue an LGBT nondiscrimination executive order for federal contractors at this time, legal scholars agree that a recent EEOC ruling will have a significant impact on existing nondiscrimination rules and regulations for federal contractors.

Last week, the EEOC issued a watershed ruling giving transgender individuals sorely needed federal protections against workplace discrimination. According to the ruling, employers who discriminate against employees or job applicants on the basis of gender identity can now be found in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—specifically its prohibition of sex discrimination in employment.

A report released today by the Williams Institute – a public policy think tank at the University of California, Los Angeles – demonstrates that this ruling has significant implications for federal contractors. Executive Order 11246 (EO 11246) already prohibits government contractors from prohibiting on the basis of sex (in addition to race, color, religion, and national origin). According to Williams, the Department of Labor’s Office of Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), which monitors contractor compliance with EO 11246, will similarly prohibit discrimination against transgender employees working for federal contractors following the EEOC’s decision:

It is the OFCCP’s policy and practice to interpret EO 11246’s non-discrimination requirements to be the same as Title VII’s requirements. This policy and practice indicates that the OFCCP will likely treat complaints of gender identity discrimination filed under EO 11246 as actionable complaints of sex discrimination, consistent with the EEOC’s recent Title VII decision.

Williams’ report goes on to say that going forward OFCCP will need to address how it will implement EEOC’s ruling in its forthcoming rulemaking as it pertains to sex discrimination. Doing so will significantly help combat discrimination against transgender workers, who continue to face astonishingly high rates of discrimination on the job.

 

This morning, Mitt Romney claimed that his campaign selects spokespeople based on their capability, not their “sexual preference.” Nevertheless, the apparent benching and subsequent resignation of his openly gay foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell raises serious questions about whether Romney actually opposes discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

In 1994, Romney infamously pandered to the Log Cabin Republicans of Massachusetts in a failed U.S. Senate run, promising to co-sponsor the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and broaden it to include protections for housing and credit. He added that preventing discrimination against gays and lesbians should be a “mainstream concern.” In his coordination of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, he even followed through on this commitment by approving a nondiscrimination policy with sexual orientation protections and working with the local gay community to “enhance diversity in the Olympic workforce.” In 2007, however, Romney told Tim Russert on Meet The Press that he had changed his position on ENDA:

RUSSERT: You said that you would sponsor the Employment Nondiscrimination Act.  Do you still support it?

ROMNEY: At the state level.  I think it makes sense at the state level for states to put in provision of this.

RUSSERT: Now, you said you would sponsor it at the federal level.

ROMNEY: I would not support at the federal level, and I changed in that regard because I think that policy makes more sense to be evaluated or to be implemented at the state level.  And let me describe why.

RUSSERT: So you did–you did change.

ROMNEY: Oh, Tim, if you’re looking for someone who’s never changed any positions on any policies, then I’m not your guy.

So it seems that Romney doesn’t believe people should be fired for being LGBT, he just doesn’t think it’s the job of the federal government to protect them. Perhaps his failure to confront  to social conservatives over Grenell’s appointment demonstrates why he refuses to take a stronger position. In fact, Grenell may not have been the first employee Romney forced out of a job due to pressure about his sexual orientation. In 2004, then-Governor Romney’s administration asked Ardith Wieworka to resign as longtime head of the state’s Office of Child Care Services, and she strongly believed it was because she had married her lesbian partner. At the time, Romney was well into his transition away from supporting LGBT equality, testifying before the Senate in favor of a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

The Log Cabin Republicans are calling on Romney to take a stronger position against LGBT discrimination, which may not be entirely in vain. However, the evidence suggests that even if Romney talks the talk, he won’t bother to walk the walk if it hinders his political prospects.

The eight-million member Methodist Church upheld its prohibition on same-sex relationships during its national legislative meeting this week, calling them “incompatible with Christian teaching.” Delegates voted 61 percent to 39 percent against “softening the language on homosexuality in their Book of Discipline, which contains church laws and doctrine,” as pro-equality advocates “protested against the vote by singing and interrupting the meeting“:

The debate on the floor of the convention showcased the church’s passionate divide and demographic shifts. Several Americans begged delegates to “hear the pain” of gay church members. Moments later, a delegate from Africa said in Swahili that saying that a homosexual person was created by God was like saying “that God created me to live with animals.” The translator apologized while rendering the remarks into English.

The Rev. Troy Plummer, executive director of the Reconciling Ministries Network, which advocates full inclusion of gay people, said in an interview: “I’m tired of being compared to beasts in our church. Even if our world understandings differ, it’s just horrendous. That our perspectives differ is the truth, and we just voted 61 to 39 percent that we can’t tell that truth.”

The votes set off a protest inside the convention. Gay rights supporters gathered around a communion table at the center of the hall, singing. The moderator canceled the remainder of the morning session, making it uncertain whether several other resolutions on homosexuality would come to the floor before the conference ends on Friday.

The vote may have also reflected the changing demographics within the church. While American membership has declined, the church expanded in Africa and the Philippines, where homosexuality is denounced. “This year about 40 percent of the nearly 1,000 delegates to the Methodist general conference are from outside the United States — an increase of more than 10 percent from the last conference, in 2008,” the New York Times notes.

Meanwhile, a growing number of American religious organizations have embraced same-sex couples, including: Evangelical Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians (U.S.A), adherents of the United Church of Christ, and Unitarian Universalists. Polls also show that a majority of Catholics and non-evangelical white Protestants back marriage rights for gay couples.

[Photo credit: Dave in Northridge]

Mitt Romney spoke out about the resignation of ex-foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell during an appearance on Fox News this morning. In doing so, the former Massachusetts governor failed to condemn the homophobia that helped convince the openly-gay foreign policy expert to leave the campaign less than two weeks after he first joined it. “We wanted him to stay with our team, he is a very accomplished spokesperson,” Romney said, before himself dabbling in the kind of anti-gay rhetoric that suggests that gay people can change:

ROMNEY: We select people not based upon their ethnicity or their sexual preference or their gender. But upon their capability. He was a capable individual. We’re sorry to have him go and actually a whole series of the senior people on my team and my supporters called him and encouraged him to stay. But he expressed a desire to move on and I wish him the very best.

Watch it:

Romney’s remarks represent the campaign’s failure to actively take on the social conservative wing of the Republican party on equality issues. Rather than publicly defend Grenell from groups who labeled him a “homosexual activist,” the candidate instead chose to muzzle his foreign policy spokesperson, asking him to remain silent on a recent conference call.

As one Republican told the New York Times, “It’s not that the campaign cared whether Ric Grenell was gay. They believed this was a nonissue. But they didn’t want to confront the religious right.” Romney’s response to Grenell’s resignation demonstrates that he himself also fears alienating these extreme elements.